Digital forms are a prevalent mechanism to collect data across multiple electronic devices today, including computers and mobile devices. Such digital forms are utilized on websites and within software applications. The party that is responsible for the creation and operation of the digital form can be referred to as a “form generator.” The general purpose of a form is to collect information from an individual who enters the information on a form (“form data”) from a device that may be connected to a network including, but not limited to the Internet, or a device that will connect to the network at a future point. The form data is then usually populated into a database for multiple potential uses, including, but not limited to, communicating with the individual, targeting advertising to the individual, or selling the form data to another organization for use thereof, presumably with the individual having given permission for any of these uses of the form data that he or she has entered.
Form generators, and other associated parties, use multiple first-party and third-party systems to attach, verify, and analyze details about the form data and the associated information about the form event, such as the time and date the form was created, the identity of the form generator, where the form was created (the specific web site or application), the form data itself, and information associated with the device of the person who entered the form data, such as browser or application type and version, the internet protocol (IP) address, machine/device identifiers, etc. Many companies do not track all of these forensics or may not track any forensics, as the tracking thereof may be difficult. Those who do attempt to collect and/or share such forensic data often use disparate systems, as well as systems often having conflicting commercial interests in sharing the data and ensuring that the data is accurate. Therefore, when organizations attempt to share form data across their own organizations or with other organizations, there is not (1) a standard methodology and/or technology to do so; (2) a standard set of forensics which is available to be utilized; or (3) an unbiased system whose only commercial interest is making item number 1 and item number 2 available.
Because of this lack of a standard methodology, the difficulty of collecting forensic data, and the commercial biases of the parties involved, it is generally not possible for an organization reviewing data that is being presented as form data to have certainty about whether the data being shared actually came from a form being completed by an individual (in other words, it may not actually be form data). Because data that is in a database could have been created in multiple ways other than by a human entering the data in a digital form, reviewing the data alone gives no understanding about whether the data came from a digital form that was completed by a human. Also, it is generally not possible for an organization reviewing data that is being presented as form data to have certainty about whether or not the desired forensic information associated with the form is available. In the case where the desired forensic information associated with the form is available, it becomes impossible for an organization to have certainty about whether the information will be accurate and presented without commercial bias. There are multiple reasons why the forensic information may not be present or may be inaccurate, including, for example, the lack of appropriate systems or technical ability on the part of the form generator to track this information, or in some cases, intentional deception on the part of the form generator or data seller. For example, a data seller may represent that data was form data very recently entered, when in fact the data is old; or an entity may sell data from a customer relationship management (CRM) database and represent that an individual entered the data in a digital form, when in fact the individual did not do so.